Furniture By Brad Hit With Multiple Lawsuits from Customers

A series of civil lawsuits have recently been filed (and won) against ‘Furniture by Brad‘, a popular Nashville furniture maker, owned by its namesake, Brad Hannewald. Hannewald has not only been defiant in not showing up for court to answer to his customer’s complaints, but he has sit idly by while the court continues to take the money from his bank accounts to pay the judgments as soon as he accumulates it.

Customers are filing lawsuits, citing that furniture they’ve paid for isn’t being completed and delivered, or when it finally does arrive it’s months past the agreed upon deadline, and is of poor quality. A common theme throughout the lawsuits is that Brad Hannewald cuts off all communications as soon as any complaint arises, which has caused the BBB to issue a warning specifically for his business.

Brad Hannewald (Michigan Dept of Corrections)

The most recent lawsuit was filed in general sessions court on Friday, for several thousand dollars by a customer claims that Furniture by Brad breached their contract, by scheming to take money but not deliver furniture in return, and eventually failing to communicate after the concerns were brought to his attention, despite multiple attempts at resolution.

Previously, a customer filed, and won, a $4,815.31 lawsuit in November of 2017, for which he is still garnishing money from Hannewald as recently as June of 2018. In that suit, customer the customer says that he ordered furniture from Brad’s Furniture, and was told they would receive it 2 months later. Two months passed, and communication ceased until the customer threatened legal action, at which time the furniture was delivered, 5 months after the initial order, and three months past the delivery date.

The furniture that was delivered was not what the customer says he was promised, and says it was poorly constructed, and when he asked Hannewald to adjust the price and fix it, that’s when communication once again ceased. The customer asked to simply return the furniture for a refund. Hannewald agreed to this in an email communication, however after another month of phone calls that were not returned, and emails, the customer says Hannewald eventually told him he was ceasing communications or any resolution. The customer won in court, and has been garnishing Hannewald’s bank account routinely when money is available in it.

This customer was able to get 2 garnishments from Hannewald’s bank to date, one in January, and another in June of 2018, recovering $2,115.72 of the total $4,815.81 judgment.

Another lawsuit against ‘Furniture by Brad’ states that under the company name, Hannewald never finished a carpentry job at the customer’s home, and was awarded a $2,000 judgment when, Hannewald didn’t bother to appear in court. She has currently recovered $1,315.94 via garnishments from Hannewald’s bank.

In his personal life, Hannewald was sentenced to 3 years probation by the Michigan Dept. of Corrections, for failing to pay child support, and had his probation transferred to Tennessee. Civilly, he’s currently successfully avoided the process-server on an additional $3,700+ suit from Advance Financial since last year, and didn’t show up for court on either of his two previous detainer / eviction hearings, resulting in default judgments.

Here’s the notice the Nashville Better Business issued:

We reached out to the company for comment, but had not yet received a response to out most recent inquiry. If you’ve had a similar experience, we’d love to hear your story, email us: tips@scoopnashville.com